In August 2013 an mosquito plague swept across Armaçao de Pêra forcing tourists to flee the beaches and ruining holidays for many families.
The reason for the abundance of the pests was a cost-saving measure by the then president of the council Rogério Santos Pinto who had filled the empty desk left by Isabel Soares who left her job to join the Algarve water board.
The failure to spray to control the insects turned out to be an expensive mistake as the complaints from holidaymakers and tourism business owners led to a helicopter being hired to fly low over the offending area in a Pythonesque attempt to ‘blow the mosquitos away.’
This year the spraying has started on time to reduce the chances of another plague.
"We will not eradicate mosquitoes, but we want to control them to prevent the emergence of any disruptive outbreaks that affect the welfare of the people," said Rosa Palma, the rather better prepared Mayor of Silves council.
According to Palma, "the municipality is able to prevent the problem with the spraying of high risk sites with herbicides and insecticides, this will avoid another plague like last year’s."
According to the mayor "there are already some mosquito larvae in the Alcantarilha stream which led to early prevention and treatment because the warm weather has triggered rapid breeding by these insects. "
"In previous years the treatments began in late May, but given the warm weather that we have, we now have started treatment," said the mayor who added that four treatments were used at the key mosquito breeding areas and that work will continue during the summer months.
In 2013, beaches in Albufeira also were affected by thousands of mosquitoes that drifted in from Armaçao de Pêra.
The use of a Kamov helicopter was an expensive and futile attempt to control a plague that had taken hold with many tourists promising never to return.
